Morecambe knock Tranmere out of play-offs

Tranmere Rovers visited Morecambe yesterday for a 12.30pm kick-off in the second leg of the League Two Play-Off semi final.

Rovers were looking to overturn a one goal deficit following the first leg last Thursday.

Match Report – League 2 – Tranmere Rovers 1(2), Morecambe 1(3)

Morecambe secured a place in the EFL play-off final as they held Tranmere to a 1-1 draw to complete a 3-2 aggregate win.

Rovers, in their fourth play-off campaign in five seasons, dominated the first leg but lost 2-1.

An early goal from Aaron Wildig assisted by Liam McAlinden did not dent Tranmere’s confidence and they levelled the second leg when James Vaughan helped a David Nugent header across the line.

Tranmere struggled to penetrate a well-organised Morecambe defence and the interim manager Ian Dawes brought on former England striker David Nugent for the second half. This change paid off and Nugent’s headder tapped in by Vaughan proved to be Tranmere’s only goal of the game.

Morecambe boss Derek Adams said after the match, “We got the all-important first goal and it looked like we would go on and win the game convincingly, but Tranmere had other ideas and became much more direct and we had to deal with their threat.

“We dealt with it well overall and it is a tremendous win for us and fantastic for the club to get through to the play-off final on aggregate.”

Tranmere interim manager Ian Dawes told BBC Radio Merseyside, “I’m angry. It’s something that we addressed going into the game about starting with desire, hunger and aggression, and the players never did that.

“They wanted it more than us, especially in the first 20-25 minutes and by that stage we were behind and had to react to it. It was unacceptable.

“The minimum requirement to be a Tranmere Rovers player is to represent the fans. They want to see the players play for the shirt and the badge with hunger and desire, and I’ll be angry if I were the fans today watching, in the first 25 minutes in particular.

“We get the goal back and you think ‘come on let’s lift it again’, but they managed the game better than we did then.”

Matt Hibbert’s thoughts…

These 2 playoff games sum up our season, at times incredible but it’s all too fleeting, too many players simply didn’t care enough.

It’s been a complete disaster of a season from start to finish, and we got exactly what we deserved; nothing.

Matt Hibbert – Presenter, This is Tranmere Podcast

Matt Hibbert, Paul Harper and Jake Keogh present the “This is Tranmere” podcast available on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts & Spotify with post-match reaction for every Tranmere game. #TRFC #SWA

These are the links to the Morecambe v Tranmere podcast:
Soundcloud
Apple podcasts
Spotify